wfn.org | Re: United Methodist Daily News note 2870

[umethnews-request@ecunet.org]

"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern, about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST
NEWS SERVICE (2884 notes).

Note 2884 by SUSAN PEEK on April 20, 1996 at 19:17 Eastern (2639 characters).

024 {2888}                                          April 20, 1996

                         SATURDAY ROUNDUP

     DENVER (UMNS)  --  A salsa beat filled the United Methodist
General Conference plenary hall April 20 here as the 998 delegates
from around the world reviewed their church's work with Hispanics
and adopted a new Hispanic hymnal.

     The Rev. Rebecca Youngblood, Vicksburg, Miss., introduced a
video that brought up to date the achievements recorded in the
first three years of a Hispanic ministries plan adopted in l992. 
Included was the establishment of 66 new congregations,
revitalization of 59 congregations and creation of 799 outreach
ministries.  

     Bishop Joel Martinez, Lincoln, Neb., chairman of the plan
committee, urged the delegates to renew the program for the l997-
2000 quadrennium.  

     Bishop Elias G. Galvan, Phoenix, Ariz., introduced the
proposed new hymnal with the aid of a lively Hispanic choir from
New York City and a mariachi and salsa band from Denver. 
Delegates, some of them eyeing warily the Spanish texts, tried out
a number of the hymns and other worship materials.

     Galvan said the first edition of the new hymnal, Mil Voces
Para Celebrar, already was subscribed.  The worship resource was
adopted formally without dissent.

     At a more sedate pace the conference took up the first of
hundreds of calendar items that will be handled before final
adjournment on April 26.  By substantial margins, the delegates
declined to terminate annual conference commissions on the Status
and Role of Women and encouraged Gideons International to open
their membership rolls to women, among other items.

     Plenary sessions then were adjourned until April 22, but the
standing legislative committees faced a busy weekend perfecting
the more than 3,000 proposals asking for changes in church law.

     An estimated 600 people, attending a Higher Education banquet
April 19, heard Richard W. Riley, U.S. Secretary of Education,
call for advances in education as the "touchstone for a new spirit
of optimism for our people."  Riley, a United Methodist from South
Carolina, said John Wesley, founder of Methodism, believed that
education forms faith and "is the essential stepping stone" to
spirituality.

     Resounding applause greeted his call for United Methodists
once again to make Wesley's passion for education the focus and
commitment of the church.

     Delegates and visitors contributed $3,579 in a special
offering April 20 for Native American ministries.
                               # # #

                                                     --Robert Lear
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